The present invention relates to the field of dwelling-house utilities and has more particularly as its subject improvements to a panel assembly, or screen, intended to interact with a bathtub in order to form a shower cubicle.
A prior panel assembly for this purpose has been described in French patent application FR 82 13,597 (Ateliers de La Motte). An essential characteristic of the invention described in this prior application consists in an arrangement for the panel to be translated vertically about its axis of articulation to a mounting fixed to the wall to bring the panel above the tap fittings of the bathtub, and making it possible to cause the panel to pivot in order to bring it perpendicular to the tap fittings.
French patent application 84 06,526 (Ateliers de la Motte) discloses improvements to the abovementioned invention aimed principally at lowering the cost of manufacture of such panels.
The technological background concerning certain elements of the abovementioned inventions, namely articulation elements and weight-compensating elements, has been described in the following publications: for the former elements, French Pat. No. 2,322,247 (SORINE), German Pat. No. 1,659,607 (BRUNE), British Pat. No. 945,572 (EDUCATIONAL SUPPLY) and Canadian Pat. No. 619,269 (HICKS), for the latter, U.S. Pat. No. 3,955,239 (GROSSMAN).